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Health, Armor, and Shield
In Overwatch, 'health '(or hit point, HP) is an important factor in gameplay. Heroes spawn with a limited amount of health, which can be changed under the effect of some weapons and abilities. Some of them can inflict damage, and lower the health. On the other hand, some abilities can be used to replenish the lost health; the act of it is called healing. Every time a hero's health falls below 75, they will gasp deeply in pain, and every time their health goes back above 75, they will let out a relieved sigh. Furthermore, while their health is under 75, a blood-smearing red outline appears around the game screen, certain sounds become distorted, and the hero periodically lets out a pained breath. When the hero's health is fully depleted, they are eliminated and will be put out of the game until the next respawn. In the HUD, health is shown in the lower-left corner, next to the hero's portrait, on a health bar. The health bar is divided into 25-health increments. In addition to regular health, heroes may have other type of health, such as armor and shield. Order of priority for damage inflicting When taking damage, the order of damage priority will follow the rule: * Health type which is on the right most of the health bar will receive damage first. * After one type of health is depleted, the left one will be the next to receive damage. * The left most of the health bar will receive damage last. Thus in detail, the order of damage priority is: * Temporary "personal shield" (from Lúcio's Sound Barrier or Doomfist's The Best Defense…). * Shield (either innate shield or added shield from Symmetra's Shield Generator). * Temporary armor from Torbjörn's Armor Pack. * Innate armor (including Torbjörn's Molten Core gained armor) * Regular health. Lúcio's temporary shield will be the first one to be damaged, and when all protection is gone, the last one to get damaged is regular health. Health types Regular health Represented on the health bar by white increments, the regular health is the last to be damaged. It does not have any special characteristic. Health cannot be generated by itself (except for Mercy, who can regenerate health at a rate of 20 HP/s after not taking damage for 1 second) and it can only be refilled by healing. All heroes have regular health. Only Winston can increase his maximum regular health by 500 HP temporarily by activating his Primal Rage. Armor Represented on the health bar by yellow (if it is innate armor) or orange (if it is temporary added armor) increments, armor will block a certain amount of HP for every shot it takes. Armor will block 5 HP damage from every individual hit that deals 10 HP damage or more. Hits that deal less than 10 HP damage will be halved their damage instead. This only applies to armor; any type of HP that comes before it (shield, temporary shield) will not gain the resistance. This means that armor is especially effective against rapid fire weapons and shotguns, both of which deal damage by firing many low-damage hits in succession or multiple low-damage pellets in one shot. In like manner, armor is ineffective against weapons that inflict a huge amount of damage in one shot, for example: sniper shots, rocket launcher, etc. There are 2 types of armor: innate armor and temporary added armor. Its function is the same, except only innate armor can be healed. Temporary armor cannot be healed but can be replenished through the same mean of gaining it in the first place. Armor normally maintains a heavy metallic aesthetic throughout the game. Shots which hit armor will generate sparks instead of a blood splatter. Bastion, D.Va (in mech), Reinhardt, Winston, and Orisa have innate armor. Torbjörn's Molten Core also gives himself temporary innate Armor. In addition, Torbjörn's Armor Pack can be used to grant any hero 75 temporary armor. Shield Represented by light blue increments, shield has the same characteristic as regular health. However, shield will regenerate at a rate of 20 per second after 3 seconds of taking no damage. Shield can be self healed, and it can also generate itself while being healed. Shield maintain a light blue "force field" aesthetic (as commonly portrayed in science fiction); it is presumed that energy is required to create and maintain this form of shield. A structure composing of light blue transparent hexagons will cover the heroes who receive additional shield. Shots which hit shields will generate small hexagonal pieces instead of a blood splatter. When shield is depleted, a breaking effect along with a cracking sound will be generated. Symmetra, Zarya, and Zenyatta have innate Shield. Symmetra's ultimate, Shield Generator, can provide 75 additional shields to any friendly hero within a 50-metre radius. Temporary shield under the effect of Lúcio's Sound Barrier, showing the decaying health.]] Represented by dark blue increments, temporary shield has the same characteristics as regular health, but is not in a hero's default HP pool; it must be added onto a hero's HP via an ability. Whereas regular shield regenerates after a period of time, temporary shield constantly decays, and cannot be healed by any means other than the ability which granted it. Lúcio's Sound Barrier grants heroes 500 temporary shield which decays rapidly at a rate of 80 HP per second, causing the temporary shield to last 6 seconds max. It is called "personal shield" in the ability's official description. Doomfist's The Best Defense... builds up temporary shield to a maximum of 150 additional HP when he damages enemies with his abilities, and decays at a slow rate of 3 HP per second. Barrier Barrier is not included in the hero's health bar and cannot be healed by any external source. Winston, Reinhardt, Orisa and Symmetra can provide physical blue barriers that soak up certain amounts of damage before being destroyed. Zarya can momentarily provide both herself and her teammates with a different type of barrier that, when attacked, soak up damage and increase the Energy level of her cannon. Healing abilities Some heroes' abilities can heal other teammates or themselves, consisting of: Support heroes * Ana's Biotic Rifle can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 75 HP per hit. Her Biotic Grenade can be used to heal multiple teammates (including herself) within its range by 100 HP and increase all affected allies' healing from any source by 50% for 4 seconds. * Lúcio's Crossfade: Heal can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 16.25 HP/sec and himself at the rate of 13 HP/sec, or at the rate of 46.8 HP/sec and 37.5 HP/sec respectively when boosted by Amp It Up. * Mercy's Caduceus Staff can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 60 HP/sec. ** Mercy's Regeneration also lets her regain 20 HP/sec after 1 second of taking no damage. * Zenyatta's Orb of Harmony can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 30 HP/sec. ** Zenyatta's Transcendence can be used to instantly refill his own Health, give him temporary invulnerability, and heal other teammates at the rate of 300 HP/sec. Other heroes * Bastion's Self-Repair can be used to heal itself at the rate of 70 HP/sec at a maximum of 300 HP in a continuous use. * Mei's Cryo-Freeze can be used to heal herself at the rate of 37.5 HP/sec at a maximum of 150 HP per use. * Soldier: 76's Biotic Field can be used to heal other teammates and himself within its range at the rate of 40 HP/sec at a maximum of 200 HP per use. * Sombra can hack a Health Pack, decreasing its cooldown and denying enemy usage; if she and her teammates use a hacked Health Pack, it will be registered as if Sombra heals herself and her teammates. * Reaper's The Reaping will heal himself for 20% of the damage done to enemy heroes. * Roadhog's Take A Breather can be used to heal himself at the rate of 300 HP/sec at a maximum of 300 HP per use. * Tracer's Recall can be used to regain all Health lost in the last 3 seconds. * Torbjörn's Molten Core can be used to give himself temporary innate Armor, and heal his turret to full health. * Winston's Primal Rage can be used to regain all Health lost before the ablity's activation, and increase his regular health by 500 HP. Environmental Healing ]] In addition to a hero's abilities, health may be restored through features on the map, including: *Small Health Packs (75 HP; 10-second respawn time by default) **Its respawn time will be reduced to 25% of its original time (2.5 seconds by default) when hacked by Sombra. *Large Health Packs (250 HP; 15-second respawn time by default) **Its respawn time will be reduced to 25% of its original time (3.75 seconds by default) when hacked by Sombra. *Payloads (10 HP/sec) *Spawn Rooms (100 HP/sec) **Heroes cannot take damage from any source (including themselves) in a spawn room. Trivia * The health bars of enemies will be visible after the player inflicted damage to them, and will be invisible again after 5 seconds have passed. * The most HP in the game is achieved by a Winston during Primal Rage with 4 Shield Generators (or 3 Shield Generators and 1 Armor Pack) and Sound Barrier, at 1800 HP. Patch Changes * * * * }} Category:Game Mechanics